Circumcision and Uncircumcision

Circumcision and Uncircumcision

(No. 3454)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1915.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 6, 1866.

"For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails anything nor
uncircumcision, but faith which works by love." Galatians 5:6.

MAN appears to the most superficial observer to have, at any rate, two
parts–his outward bodily form and constitution–and his inward,
invisible, but essential self. There are some persons who care nothing
for the inner man, who think that to educate the body and to have it in
the finest state for athletic exercises is sufficient, but these
persons are very few and very foolish, for the commonsense of mankind
now holds that the mind must be trained, that the mental faculties must
be put into healthy order and that the inner man must be cared for as
well as the outer man. Who shall venture to say that the flesh is more
important than the soul? He would be foolish who would attach no
importance to the body. "Verily, bodily exercise profits a little,"
says the Apostle, though it may be but a little. We are not to despise
the body, nor to neglect it. We are not to consider it as a thing
utterly unworthy of our regard in any respect. "Know you not that your
bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit" and, therefore, are neither
to be despised, nor to be defiled? But, still, wisdom tells us that the
inner man is more important than the outer and that we must care for
that at all hazards, and see to its interests, come what may of the
interests of the body.

Now true religion I may compare, in this respect, to man. It, too, has
its two parts–the outward and the inward. I suppose every religion
must have some outward way of displaying itself. Even our Quaker
friends, who give up both Baptism and the Lord's Supper, yet show their
religiousness, even more conspicuously than most of us do, by a certain
form of dress. And if there were nothing else, the mere sitting still
in the meeting house for an hour would be an outward form–and I
believe it is one which has a tendency to become as formal as any other
method of worship. All religion, whether true or false, must have an
outward part to it, that is, its body, and this outward part of
religion, the body, is not to be despised, but is to be cared for and
thoughtfully observed. But the tendency with most men is to put the
outward form of religion into the highest place and to think the most
of it, just as I have said some think more of the body than they do of
the mind.

Now this is all idle and foolish, for the outward form of religion,
after all, is nothing without the inward spirit. No, it is worse than
nothing–it is hypocrisy! It is an insult to Heaven and is more likely
to bring a curse upon those who practice it, than it is to obtain for
them a blessing! Inward worship, when it does not show itself
outwardly, is acceptable to God, for, "God is a Spirit, and they who
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth"–and spiritual
worship, when it does show itself outwardly, is equally acceptable to
Him, for He receives it for the sake of the Spirit which gives it life.
But outward religion without the inward spirit is always to be classed
under the list of offenses rather than of excellencies, for we believe
an outward worship which does not carry the heart with it, to be
abhorrent to God–

"For God abhors the sacrifice Where not the heart is found." Yet,
understand, the outward is to be observed, but without the inward it is
nothing!

And now for our text. The Apostle first speaks about the outward part
of religion, and then he tells us what the inward part of it is. In the
first place we will have a few words on–

I. THE OUTWARD PART OF RELIGION.

Paul here speaks of it after that fashion. He says, "In Jesus Christ,
neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision." Before our
Savior came into the world, circumcision was a thing of meaning. It was
the seal of the Covenant.

God had ordained it to be the outward token of the inward possession of
certain remarkable privileges with which He had endowed the seed of
Abraham. But after Christ came, circumcision lost its force and availed
nothing–for this reason only–namely, that it had lost all spiritual
meaning and was no longer the type of spiritual blessings and benefits.
The Savior had been pleased to institute other ordinances which better
set forth the spiritual Truth which He came to reveal, and
circumcision, therefore, having no more any spiritual teaching in it,
became a dead thing and the Apostle says that it avails nothing. Of
course, it was, in Paul's day, the outward mark of a firm believer in
Judaism. The man who still held to the old faith was not to be led away
by the innovations, as he supposed them to be, of Jesus of Nazareth,
but still held that it was essential, first and foremost, that the seed
of Israel should bear in the flesh the ordained mark. But the Apostle
said that "circumcision avails nothing." He put it on to the side. But
what is remarkable, as showing the force of the Apostle's meaning, is
that he should have added, "Nor uncircumcision," for while there were
some who said, "I have received the seal of the Covenant–I am
circumcised"–the Apostle said to them, "It avails nothing." "Oh," says
another, but I, being a Jew, refuse to be circumcised. I, as a Jew,
have come out and said that my children shall no longer be initiated
into the Jewish faith according to the Jewish custom. I have repudiated
it–shall not I be saved? I have no faith in the customs of my
fathers–surely it is well with me, for by this I have declared myself
to be a follower of the Savior." "No," says the Apostle, "it makes no
difference! You who are circumcised get no good by it and you who are
uncircum-cised get no good–neither the one nor the other is of any
good to you!" He sweeps away the whole of the Jewish ceremony, both in
its observance and in its non-observance! And so he gives it a twofold
blow and lays it dead!

Now I do not think that the Apostle meant here to speak merely of
circumcision, but of all other rites and ceremonies! I believe he would
have us understand that while there is any spiritual meaning connected
with them, they are valuable just as circumcision might have been
valuable while there was any spiritual meaning connected with it–but
that when we are not Believers, when we merely receive them outwardly,
without knowing their spiritual meaning, or comprehending and receiving
the spiritual Grace which they typify, they avail nothing–they are of
no service, and that, indeed, in and of themselves, they are of no use
whatever apart from that "faith which works by love." Whether you were
sprinkled in your infancy, or have been immersed as Believers,
supposing you not to have been Believers, that immersion is as much a
mistake as your previous sprinkling! You have not received any benefit
from either, for there is nothing in either. The true essence of the
thing lies in the faith which works by love, and if you have received
it without faith, you have received nothing at all! You have received
only the mere outward ceremony and there has no good come to your soul.
You may have come to the Lord's Supper. You may have received it
kneeling, or received it standing, or received it sitting–if you have
received it by faith, you have been enabled by faith to feed upon
Christ to eat His flesh and to drink His blood. But if you have
received it without faith, you have received nothing! No, you have done
worse than that, for you have eaten and you have drank condemnation
unto yourselves–you have taken the bread of the children, not being a
child, and so you have stolen from the Father's Table! You have entered
into the court of the priests without being a priest and so you have
committed the sin of Uzza–you have ventured to perform a sacrifice for
which you were not fit– and it is a marvel of God's long-suffering
mercy that you have not received a curse for having intruded where you
were never called! If you have come to Baptism and to the Lord's Supper
with the faith which works by love, you have doubtless received
benefits by the ordinances–but if you have come without that
faith–Baptism or no Baptism avails nothing whatever! There is nothing
in any of those outward forms and ceremonies in themselves! They are
only a dead and killing letter, a mystifying ceremony which drags men
down to the things which are apparent. But when faith comes, it
quickens them and makes them live–it transforms them into blessed
means of Grace and then God, in them, communes with the soul. I think
it would be difficult to say too broadly or too strongly that outward
ceremonies profit nothing in themselves. I know we are likely to be
misunderstood, and that there would be some who would say that they
would neglect these things altogether. If you wish to misunderstand us,
you will. We wish to speak very plainly, but if we were misunderstood
in that point, we would not regret it so much as we would if we were
misunderstood upon the other, namely, that the outward form of religion
is nothing but death, the mere letter, and not the spirit, and that
only true vital faith in the Lord Jesus Christ can really bless the
soul!

Now let us try to bring out this thought still more fully, that
"neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumci-sion"–that is to
say, that outward forms do not avail to change the life.

The change of the outward life is a very great part of salvation. A man
cannot be saved from a sin in which he still indulges. It is clear that
if a man is saved in the Scriptural sense, he is saved from his sins.
The drunk becomes sober, the harlot becomes chaste, the unrighteous
become religious. Now it is a matter of commonsense which I will put to
any-body–whether there is any tendency in an outward ceremony to make
a thief honest, or to make a drunk sober? Whether, in fact, sprinkling,
or immersion, or receiving bread, or drinking of wine have any
tendency, in themselves, to produce any sort of moral effect upon the
man? When St. Francis Zavier went to India, he converted thousands of
people, and made them Christians–and how do you think he did it? Why,
by having on his belt a little pot of water and a large brush–as he
went along, he sprinkled the people with the water and they were
christened! They were Christianized, baptized and he put them all down
as converts. Very well, legitimately so they were, I have no doubt, as
much benefited by that as people are by infant baptism, and as much as
people are by immersion, if they are immersed without faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ! We laugh at the thing when it is done on a large scale,
and wonder that people can receive it–but we may equally laugh at it
with scorn in any one individual instance! My dear Hearer, if you could
really prove that an outward ceremony changed men, oh, how diligently
would we practice it! If the consecrated wafer really does make men
holy, oh, turn your houses into ovens and let there be bakers in every
street! Happy bakers who can convert the minds of men! Happy wheat that
can be ground so as to change sinners into saints! But where is the
connection? Where is the connection between bread and the conscience?
Where is the connection between water, either in drops or in floods,
and the heart, the affections and the reason of man? Oh, Beloved, we
know better than this! How is it, then, that men's minds can cling to
such superstitions? "You must be born-again" in order that an effect
may be produced upon your minds and hearts! You must know another
influence than that which is outward! There must come upon you an
unseen and invisible power which shall enlighten your understandings,
control your souls, change your affections and so make your lives to be
different from what they were! But oh, these outward things are but
clumsy appliances! You might as well turn gas upon a fire to put it
out, as try to save a soul by these outward forms! Circumcision and
uncircumcision–neither of them avail anything in the moral life of
man–and everybody knows that!

But, then, it is equally true that they do not do anything to comfort a
real awakened and quickened conscience. I have no doubt that a great
many people do derive a degree of comfort from going to church and
chapel. You come here and sit in your pews and are very comfortable.
Perhaps some of you go to sleep, but that does not lessen your comfort,
but rather increases it. If the sermon were never so dull, perhaps it
would be all the better for you, but it prevents your being quite as
comfortable because it happens to be personal, and to be plainly and
boldly spoken. I know there are hundreds and thousands of people in
this country who would be greatly troubled in their minds if they did
not go to church or chapel twice on Sundays–and they get comfort in
this because their conscience is dead! If their conscience were really
awakened, they would understand that there is no connection between
conscience and outward forms. A conscious sinner, an awakened sinner,
never can be lulled to sleep, again, except by that same voice which
first awakened it! Conscience finds peace concerning sin when it finds
sin laid upon the Savior. It gets peace concerning guilt when it sees
Him smarting and bleeding unto death. When faith comes, conscience has
peace with God through Jesus Christ, but I am certain that no
conscience which God ever awakened from the dead found peace through
Baptism, or through the Lord's Supper, or through any outward form! The
conscience which is once awakened cries, "These things are good enough
for saints. They may minister comfort to them, but I need salvation
itself! I need Christ Himself–not things about Christ, but Christ–not
merely to worship with His people, but to be one of them! "Putting
aside the crucifix as it was held up to his eyes in his dying moments,
and refusing the last unction, a dying monk cried out, "Tua vulnera
Jesu! Tua vulnera Jesu!"–"Your wounds, O Jesus! Your wounds, O Jesus!"
And this is what every awakened conscience will have to cry! It must be
the blood of Jesus, not the sacramental wine! The washing of the bath
that was filled with His Atonement–not any outward washing for the
cleansing of the flesh! The reception of God the Holy Spirit into our
souls, as a priest coming into a temple! The receiving of the love of
Jesus into our hearts as an altar fire into a censor! The receiving of
the love of God, Himself, our Father, so that we can say–

"Abba Father! Cry

With an unfaltering tongue."

It is all this which the conscience needs and it will not be satisfied
with anything short of this. "Faith which works by love" will quiet the
conscience, but all else that you can do is but as singing a song to
one that is of a sad heart–it yields no comfort to the soul.

If a man were very hungry, very hungry, indeed, I can imagine that if a
person should say to him, "Sit down. I am going to play you a tune," he
would answer, "Oh, but give me something solid! Give me something
substantial!" What would the other say? "Not pleased with music? Come,
then, I will give you some painting. Look at that window, there, is not
that finely done?" "Give me something solid! Oh, give me something
solid!" "Well, but here comes a procession– are not these gentlemen
very prettily arrayed? Is it not a gaudy show, worthy of any baby?"
"Yes," replies the man, "but I need something solid! I can eat neither
processions, nor painted windows, nor music! I need something solid."
"Oh," says the man, "but I must give you a rule to live by–here is one
which was settled long ago by bishops–will not that satisfy you?" "No.
Your rules and regulations may be all very good, but I need something
solid, something to receive now." Now the guilty conscience has an
awful hunger within itself that cannot be satisfied with ritualism of
the best and finest sort, but the conscience cries, "I need something
to satisfy me! Tell me, how can God be Just, and yet be the justifier
of the ungodly? That is the question. Tell me, how can God punish sin
and yet forgive it? Tell me, what is to become of me while I am covered
with all these iniquities? Tell me how I can get free from them." Well,
the Gospel comes and says, "The Lord Jesus Christ suffered in the place
of all who believe on Him, and the moment you believe in Him you are
completely saved! Your sin is gone, you are a child of God, your feet
are on the Rock of Ages and you can never perish." "Oh," says the
conscience, "that is what I need! That is the very thing I have been
longing for! Here is the gracious God turning to me and saying, 'I have
blotted out your sins like a cloud, and like a thick cloud your
iniquities.'" Ah, may God give us such a spiritual hunger as that, and
there will be no fear that we shall ever be mystified about
circumcision or uncircumcision, for we shall feel that neither of them
avail anything! If we once get the faith that works by love, we shall
be satisfied with favor and filled with the goodness of the Lord!

But now it remains for us to say that, as outward religion neither
changes the morals of men, nor gives peace to an awakened conscience,
so neither can these outward things avail to take us to Heaven. You
will be deceived at the last, rest assured of that, if you rest on
anything which only concerns these eyes of ours, these hands and these
feet. If you are depending upon the things which are seen, they are,
every one of them, temporal–they cannot be of any use to you when you
come into the land of the things that are not seen–which are eternal!
Oh, Soul, if you rest upon a mortal hope, or a mortal thing, or an
outward ceremony, or an outward form, you are resting on that which
cannot have any efficacy in the unseen world! And when your soul comes
to the grave and you look across the narrow stream of death into the
dim eternity, you will then have no hope! It is very strange how God
makes liars tell the truth. The priests do not pretend to offer you any
hope, for what do they tell you? Do they ever say that these ceremonies
will take you to Heaven? Not they! It seems as if God would not let
Satan fabricate the lie, perfectly, for he has left a weak part in it.
Where does the best believer in outward ceremonies go? Ask the priest,
and he will tell you that he goes to "purgatory!" Did not Cardinal
Wiseman go there? Did they not put upon the lid of his coffin, "Pray
for the repose of his soul," and was not that a proof that they
believed he went where he needed to be prayed for and where he had no
repose for his soul? Do not all the mightiest and greatest men of that
church go there? Do not even the Popes go there? It is a poor
consequence–that is all you can get, if you get anything! They cannot
offer you anything better than this! But oh, if you get the "faith
which works by love," I will tell you what you will have–you shall
have a good hope through Divine Grace, not of "purgatory," not of the
"limbos patrum," but of being with Christ in Heaven as soon as your
eyes are closed in death and, confident of this, you shall come to your
dying bed, you shall lie there as long as God is pleased to spare you
in your sickness, without doubt or fear! And when the last hour comes
you shall have Grace to die, if not triumphantly, at least hopefully!
You shall have preludes of the everlasting song, foretastes of the
coming Glory and you shall die with some such song as this on your
lips–

"Jerusalem, my happy home, Name ever dear to me! Now shall my labors
have an end In joy, and peace, and thee!"

It is singular, and strangely indicative of a trembling conscience,
that those who preach up circumcision and uncircumci-sion dare not
offer Heaven–but those who declare that salvation is by faith in Jesus
can boldly say to every trembling

sinner, "Fear not! If you believe in Jesus when you die, yet shall you
be with Him in Paradise, 'for there is, therefore, now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus' for they shall never perish, neither
shall any pluck them out of His hand! Beloved, now are we the sons of
God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when
He shall appear we shall be like He, for we shall see Him as He is." We
shall not be in "purgatory," but we shall be with Him, for His prayer
to His Father for us was, "Father, I will that they, also, whom You
have given Me be with Me where I am, that they may behold My Glory."

Thus have we said enough to show you that the outward form of religion
avails nothing. Now we come to speak, in the next place, concerning–

II. THE INWARD PART OF RELIGION.

The text tells us that the inward part of religion is "faith which
works by love." Now what is faith? In one word, it is trust–the
trusting of the soul in God's promise made in Christ Jesus. My faith is
that which enables me to believe that God is true, to believe that He
sent His Son in the flesh to suffer for my sins, to believe that
through the merit of His blood and the virtue of His holy life, I am
saved. To trust in Him to save me–this is faith. It is not the faith
of God's elect to merely believe dogmas and truths, to believe them to
be true, but to rest upon them, to trust in them, to repose one's soul
thereon! The very essence of Christianity is trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ. But mark, we are told that this is faith of a certain kind–it
is "faith which works by love." It is not a faith that merely talks,
much less a faith that goes to sleep, or a faith that bolsters men up
in presumption and makes them live in sin, but a faith which works by
love, a practical faith. It is a faith which has arms and hands–not a
crippled faith–but a living thing which cannot help working! It is not
a frozen river that is like stone in its bed, but rolling on,
increasing and swelling until it comes to the sea. It is a living
thing, a working thing! My faith is no faith at all if it does not
operate upon my daily life. If I believe that Jesus Christ has saved me
and I trust in Him, there are a great many things I cannot do which
other people can do–and many things that I love to do which other
people would not do and do not wish to do! If my religion never comes
across me when I am in the shop, and stops me, and never comes to me
when I am in the market place, then it is a religion which is not worth
a button–and the sooner I am rid of it the better! It must be a
working religion, practically operating upon the entire man. And this
is the way in which it operates–it operates by love. It works by
making us love Christ for what He has done for us. It works by making
us love God, so that we say, "Lord, what is Your will, for we wish to
submit to it"? And this makes us cheerful, happy and resigned. It
works, in fact, by making us love the Lord Jesus Christ. If you do not
love Jesus, then your faith is no faith, for the very sound of His name
is precious to those who have true faith! It works by love to Him who
Himself loved us and gave Himself for us! It works by love to God, who
gave His Son–

"Loved of my God, for Him again

With love intense I burn.

Chosen of Him before time began,

I choose Him in return."

Then faith also works by love to the Brothers and Sisters. A man has no
faith if he does not love faithful men. It is a mark of the child of
God that he loves the rest of the family. "We know that we have passed
from death unto life because we love the brethren"–not only the
brethren who happen to be called by our denominational name–that is
very easy! A hypocrite can do that–but all the saints! Whenever, as
St. Basil used to say, we can see anything of Christ, there we ought to
give something of Christian love, so that genuine faith loves all those
who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and desire the good and
prosperity of all the branches of the vine. And, mark you, this faith
will work by love, even to your enemies! If you are a genuine
Christian, you will love those who do not love you. It is very little
to love our own relatives, though there are some who do not do even
that. But to love our enemies is the mark of a true Christian–to be
prepared to bear and to forbear, to endure, but never to inflict, to be
reviled, but not to answer, not to rebuke, but to heap coals of fire
upon the head of our foes by endeavoring to do all that we can for the
good of those who do us ill. It was said of Thomas Cranmer, "Do my lord
of Canterbury an ill turn and he will be your friend and give you
help." And it was said of another, that if you wanted to get a favor
from him, the best thing you could do was to do him an injury, because
then, when you asked him for anything, he was quite certain to say, "I
will do it for you because you have been my enemy." Let us seek for
something of the same spirit! Let us love even those who are unlovable
and who love us not.

Then I may say that one mark of this faith is that it loves sinners.
God deliver you, as a Church and congregation, from that unloving
spirit which never cares for the souls of men! I believe that to be an
accursed theology which makes a preacher say, "I have preached to the
living people of God. As for the dead, I have nothing to say to them."
A theology which dries up the milk of human kindness makes a man a
cynic towards his own kind. And to have no care for his own flesh and
blood is a theology that never came from Heaven, but from a very
different quarter! I have seen the dupes of this theology callous about
the conversion of even their own children! And I have heard them boast
that they never speak to their children about religion–boasting of it
as though it were not the most disgraceful thing that could be said!
The Christian that cares not for his own household is worse than a
heathen and a publican! We have heard some of these say that God will
do His own work and, therefore, they never speak about Christ, and
though this were not degrading themselves below the very basest
idolaters, for even an idolater will speak well of his god and endeavor
to bring others to bow before his blocks of wood and stone! But these
persons, stupefied by a fatalism which is far more Muslim than
Christian, leaves undone the work which God would have them do and
which, if they had genuine faith in their souls, they would do! May God
give us not a frozen faith like that, but a faith which works by love
to the souls of sinners! You do not love Christ if you do not love
sinners! He came into the world to seek and to save them, and if you do
not try to bring them to Him, you do not know Christ! How dwells the
love of God in you if you have never cared for poor dying men?

So, then, it seems that the very soul and essence of true religion is
this–the possession of a trust in Christ which, through the passion
called, "love," affects my whole being, moves me to the greatest
activity, and restrains me from sin. Now, dear Friends, have you got
this faith that works by love? "Oh, I am not baptized," says one. Now I
never asked you that question! I did not indeed. I only asked you, Have
you got the faith which works by love? "Oh, Sir, I have been baptized."
I did not ask you that! I asked if you have got the faith which works
by love? "Well, Sir, I am a member of the church." What does that
matter? That is not the point–the point is, have you the faith which
works by love? If you have got that, you are going to Heaven! If you
have not, you are on the high-road to Hell! If you have the faith which
works by love, you may have a great many errors, you may make a great
many mistakes, but your face is towards Jerusalem and you will get
there! But if you have not the faith which works by love, you may be as
orthodox as the Bible, itself, and you may be sound in theology as the
Holy Spirit–and yet, even if all this were possible–you could never
enter Heaven if you have not the faith which works by love. That is the
essential thing, the one thing necessary.

I was struck, when thinking over this text, to find that in the next
Chapter (Galatians 6:15) you get this truth in another shape. By
comparing one text with another, you often get fresh light, and here
you have it–"For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision avails
anything, nor uncircumcision, but"–but what? The faith which works by
love? No, "but a new creature." Well, then, these two things must be
the same! My having the faith which works by love implies that I am a
new creature! Now some of you have been puzzling yourselves about
whether you have been born-again, whether you are new creatures. Have
you got the faith that works by love? If so, you are a new creature,
for you never saw a man in a natural state who had faith that works by
love! He may have faith, a faith which makes him tremble like the
devil, but the faith that works by love to Jesus Christ, no hypocrite
ever did have or ever could have! What are you to apprehend, my dear
Friends, if you love the Lord Jesus Christ and are trusting in Him? Do
not let the devil perplex you by saying that perhaps you have not
experienced regeneration, perhaps you have not felt this and have not
felt that! You are right, and must be right, if you have the faith
which works by love, for, according to the Scriptures, that is so
evident a proof of being a new creature that it is tantamount to it!
Hear how our Savior puts it. There were some who wanted to do the work
of God and who said, "What shall we do that we may work the works of
God?" What do you think Christ said to them? Did He say, "You must feel
this, or feel that," and so on? No! He said, "This is the work of God,
that you believe on Jesus Christ, whom He has sent." This is the
greatest work that God ever does–to make a man believe in His Son!
Wherever a man is made to believe in Jesus Christ and to trust Him, you
may see the finger of God. You may imitate 20 things in religion, but
you cannot give a man true faith–it must be an act of Grace. No dead
sinner ever did trust Christ! No unregenerate soul ever possessed the
faith which works by love! And it may stand to you as a certain
evidence of the new birth, if you have got the faith which works by
love.

As I studied the subject farther, I was struck to find that in another
text (Colossians 3:11) you get the same sentiment–"Where there is
neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian,
Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all." Now there are
some who say, "I hope I am a new creature, but I am sometimes afraid
wheth-

er Christ is mine." Well, but it is the same thing! Christ is all and
in all to you, and you are the very same people who are new creatures,
and who have the faith that works by love! Then, dear Heart, if you are
trusting in Christ, Christ is your All-in-All, and you need not say–

"'Tis a point Ilong to know, Oft it causes anxious doubt. Do Ilove the
Lord or no, Am I His or am I not?"

You are His, if you are trusting in Him with the faith that works by
love! Oh, I think there are some of you who can say, "Well, I do trust
Him. I have nowhere else to trust. I cannot trust in myself. I dare not
rely on my prayers. I cannot depend upon any mortal thing, but the Lord
knows that I do rest upon the blood of Jesus Christ. I am not deceived
about that and, what is more, I do love Him, not as I want to love Him,
not as I ought to love Him, but I do love Him. The sound of His name is
sweet to me. I could not live without it and when I am at a distance
from Him I cannot be happy. There was a time when I could be very happy
and very contented without the Savior–when I could enjoy the theater,
the ballroom and all the pleasures of the world, but I cannot now. It
is all emptiness and vanity–vanity of vanity! I must have Christ! If
others can do without Him, I cannot. I must have Him."

Well, then, dear Soul, He is yours! He is your All-in-All. I spoke last
Sunday of the limpets at the seaside, sitting on the rocks. It does not
prove that the rocks belong to the limpets because the limpets sit
there, but in your case you are just like a poor little thing flying to
Christ–and that proves that Christ belongs to you, that He is yours in
this world, and will be yours in the world to come! Then if I take hold
of Christ, I know that He is mine! There was never a sinner who took
Christ and then found that he had made a mistake. The woman who came to
the Savior and touched the hem of His garment, and asked to receive a
cure of the Savior, did not take the cure away, but He said, "Your
faith has savedyou; go in peace." If you can get Christ, Christ is
yours. Trust Him with your soul, now, Sinner! You have no
qualification. You have no goodness. You have no merits. Perhaps you
have no good feelings, nor anything that is commendable. Well now,
trust Him! Do you believe that He can save such a sinner as you are?
Can you do Him the credit, Sinner, that such a lost and almost
condemned sinner as you are can be saved by Him? If you have the power
thus to believe in Him, it proves that you are saved, for you could not
thus have believed unless He had visited you and given you Grace to do
it! Can you do it now? The greater you feel your sin to be, the blacker
you persuade yourself that you are tonight, the more can you honor
Christ by casting yourself wholly on Him!

He who has no disease cannot honor the physician by saying he believes
he can cure him, but he who has a disease through and through him, so
that he is given up–when he says to the physician, "Sir, I believe
that you can exterminate this disease and make me a healthy man"–does
honor to his physician by his faith. You great sinners, you black
sinners, you lost, ruined and undone sinners, the Lord help you now to
trust Christ, and then you will honor Him, and give Him glory, and that
is the best proof that He is in you and that you shall be with Him in
the day of His appearing! It is faith that works by love that is the
grand thing, and that is the same thing as being a new creature, and
the same thing as having Christ to be our All-in-All.

May God give this to those of you who are seeking it, so that, having
begun in the spirit, you do not end in the flesh, but walk in the
liberty wherewith Christ shall make you free. Amen.